The Billionaire Winners Of The 2014 Academy Awards

"Dumb money” used to be a big joke in Hollywood. Rich folks who wanted to rub shoulders with glamorous stars would throw money at Hollywood and for some reason, their films never made any profit. Blame “creative accounting.” Eventually, they would slink back to the safer waters of Wall Street. 

Today’s billionaires are much smarter about their Hollywood investments. They’re not just in it for the glamour, they’re in the game to make money and create quality films.

Exhibit A: James Packer. Worth $6.5 billion, the Australian casino mogul decided last year to invest in Hollywood. (You can read more about Packer’s Tinseltown gamble here.) He partnered with director Brett Ratner to form RatPac, a production company that Packer plans will eventually encompass movies, TV and publishing. One of RatPac’s first deal was to land a massive financing deal with Warner Bros. RatPac is now covering 25% of the production budget of all Warner Bros. films.

The first movie in the RatPac deal was Gravity, which last night won seven Oscars including for Best Director. Although the film was completed by the time RatPac signed with Warner Bros., it hadn’t yet been distributed so Packer got to take his 25% stake in the film. Not only did Gravity win the most Oscars this year, but it’s also the highest-grossing of the Oscar films. The movie earned $704 million on a budget of $100 million meaning Packer and Ratner stand to make millions from the deal.

Another Forbes billionaire who played a role in last night’s Oscars was Arnon Milchan (Packer considers Milchan his best friend and mentor when it come to financing films.) Worth $4.7 billion, Milchan ranks 319 on this year’s Forbes Billionaires list. His New Regency Pictures partnered with Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment to produce 12 Years a Slave, the brutal film about slavery from British director Steve McQueen. Last night the movie walked away with the biggest award of the night: Best  Picture. Milchan recently admitted that he had been a spy for Israel (something that was always rumored  in Hollywood). It’s unlikely the admission will affect his standing in the film industry. In addition to its Oscars, 12 Years a Slave earned $140 million at the global box office on a budget of $20 million. The film should continue to earn on home video.

Billionaire producer Arnon Milchan (center) joins the cast and crew of ’12 Years A Slave’ to accept the award for Best Picture at the 86th Annual Academy Awards (Photo: John Shearer/Invision/AP) Although she’s not on our Billionaire’s list yet, Megan Ellison has become a big presence in Hollywood and she had two films up for multiple Oscars last night: Her and American Hustle. Although American Hustle got shut out, Her won for Best Original Screenplay. Ellison’s father, Larry Ellison, ranks fifth on our list with $48 billion.

Both of his children have gravitated to the movie industry. Ellison’s son David is helping finance big budget movies at Paramount like Star Trek and the hit zombie film World War Z. Megan Ellison has focused more more on the indie world. She’s backing the kind of tricky films that don’t always attract studio financing.  Ellison doesn’t have anything lined up for 2014 but she’s stepping into franchise territory with the Terminator films which she now owns the rights to.
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Another Forbes Billionaire who has successfully made the leap to Hollywood is Jeffrey Skoll. Ranking 396 on our Billionaires list with $3.8 billion, Skoll’s Participant Media has earned Oscars for movies like Lincoln and The Help. The company’s big 2013 movie was The Fifth Estate which turned out to be a critical, and financial, bomb.